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Occupational Employment and Wages in Corpus Christi, May 2015

Workers in the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.18 in May 2015, about 13 percent below the nationwide average of $23.23, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; personal care and service; and healthcare support. Three groups had wages that were measurably higher than their respective national averages, including the production and the architecture and engineering groups. Local wages in the four remaining groups were not statistically different from their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Corpus Christi employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups including construction and extraction; installation, maintenance, and repair; and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical; business and financial operations; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2015

(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Corpus Christi is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.

Note: * The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group – construction and extraction – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Corpus Christi had 12,980 jobs in construction and extraction, accounting for 6.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 4.0-percent national share. However, at $21.27 per hour, the local average hourly wage for this occupational group was about 7 percent below the national average of $22.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the construction and extraction group included construction laborers (2,090), oil and gas roustabouts (1,230), and first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers (1,220). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, as well as oil, gas, and mining service unit operators, with mean hourly wages of $35.09 and $31.71, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were construction laborers ($14.07) and cement masons and concrete finishers ($14.57). (Detailed occupational data for construction and extraction are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_18580.htm.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Corpus Christi metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the construction and extraction group. For instance, oil, gas, and mining service unit operators were employed at 14.2 times the national average in Corpus Christi. A similarly high rate was registered for local oil and gas roustabouts, who were employed at 12.5 times the national rate, among the highest rates in all metropolitan areas for this particular occupation. On the other hand, cement masons and concrete finishers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Corpus Christi, indicating that this occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Texas Workforce Commission.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the issuance of data for May 2015, the OES program has incorporated redefined metropolitan area definitions as designated by the Office of Management and Budget. OES data are available for 394 metropolitan areas, 38 metropolitan divisions, and 167 OES-defined nonmetropolitan areas. A listing of the areas and their definitions can be found at www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations for all industries combined in the nation; the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 432 metropolitan areas and divisions; 167 nonmetropolitan areas; and Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. National estimates are also available by industry for NAICS sectors, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industries, and by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2015 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, and November 2012. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 73.5 percent based on establishments and 69.6 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.9 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,987 establishments with a response rate of 69 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2015 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

Metropolitan area definitionsThe substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Aransas, Nueces, and San Patricio Counties in Texas.

(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Corpus Christi MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_18580.htm.(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.(3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.(4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.(5) Estimates not released.